Current Affairs Quiz - April 2022

Notes:
SEBI Chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch launched the ‘Manthan’, a six-week long ideathon, in association with various institutions including BSE, NSE, NSDL, CDSL, KFintech, CAMS, LinkInTime and MCX.
It will facilitate the creation of a set of ideas and innovative solutions related to the securities market in India.

Notes:
Union Home Minister Amit Shah announced that the Centre decided to reduce the disturbed areas under the AFSPA in Nagaland, Assam, and Manipur after decades.
Centre had constituted a high-level committee to examine the possibility of lifting AFSPA in Nagaland – after the killing of 14 civilians in an army operation in December 2021. It has extended the ambit of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) in three districts of Arunachal Pradesh.

Notes:
NASA and SpaceX are set to launch astronauts to the International Space Station as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.
NASA’s SpaceX Crew-4 is the fourth crew rotation mission that will carry an international crew of four astronauts on a science expedition. The mission will fly a new Crew Dragon spacecraft and will launch on a Falcon 9 booster. The spacecraft has been named “Freedom” by the Crew-4 astronauts.

Notes:
The Police Department in Chittoor of Andhra Pradesh has set up ‘She Auto’ stands, the first of its kind in the state.
It aims to provide safe transportation to women and girl students. Tirupati is the first city in the state to set up special auto stands for women.

Notes:
Indian space tech start-up Pixxel successfully launched its first fully-fledged commercial satellite apparently called ‘Shakuntala’ or Pixxel TD-2.
The satellite was launched with Elon Musk-run SpaceX’s Falcon-9 rocket aboard SpaceX’s Transporter-4 mission from Cape Canaveral in the United States. The satellite hosts one of the highest resolution hyper-spectral commercial cameras.

Notes:
Afghanistan is the the world’s biggest opium producer, at present. Recently, the Taliban announced a ban on the cultivation of poppy in Afghanistan.
The production, use or transportation of other narcotics was also banned. As per the United Nations estimates, Afghanistan’s opium production was worth USD 1.4 billion in 2017. It has been continuously increasing in recent months.

Notes:
As per the provisions of National Education Policy-2020, the University Grants Commission(UGC) has developed a draft curricular framework and credit system for Four Years’ Undergraduate Programme (FYUGP).
The framework aims to equip students in one or more subject areas.  The draft framework has been placed in public domain for seeking suggestions from stakeholders.

Notes:
The Tamil Nadu government recently formed a 13-member panel to frame the state education policy.
The panel is headed by Delhi High Court retired Chief Justice D Murugesan and the panel members include education experts, writer S Ramakrishnan, former chess world champion Viswanathan Anand and Carnatic musician T M Krishna, among others.

Notes:
‘Sarhul Festival’ is the most popular tribal celebration across the state of Jharkhand region. It denotes the beginning of the New Year.
This vibrant festival is celebrated at the beginning of spring every year. This year, it fell on April 4. It is usually celebrated by the tribal communities of the local Sarna religion, especially by the Munda, Ho, and Oraon tribes.

Notes:
Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), a non-profit has authored the ‘Expanding Heat Resilience’ report.
As per the report, extreme temperatures are being recorded in Himachal Pradesh and Kerala, the states with no history of heat-waves. The number of states affected by heat-waves was at 28 in 2019, up from 19 the year before.